The Discovery of Respect
by Twisted-Taffy
Summary: Yes, at first Ridge had dismissed the spaceman as just another of the strange conglomerate of bumbling fools inhabiting this ignored corner of Minecraftia. But now RidgeDog held admiration and respect for Xephos, more so than for any others. Disclaimer: We don't own the Yogscast or any of these characters.


RidgeDog held admiration and respect for Xephos, more so than for any others. They had a very strange relationship of acquaintanceship, friendly but not friends, occasional rivals but never enemies. Notch save the man who chose to be enemies with either of them.

Yes, at first Ridge had dismissed the spaceman as just another of the strange conglomerate of bumbling fools inhabiting this ignored corner of Minecraftia. The man had been making pastries, after all. And the bees, those Notch-forsaken bees. Ridge didn't know what Xephos and his dwarven companion had done before then but he had thought them no threat.

In fact, Ridge had ignored Xephos entirely until the spaceman had teamed up with the mad scientist, later joined by the dwarf, in what had turned out being essentially a play-fight with a nightmarish yet hysterical intermission. Both man and dwarf had proven their ingenuity and resourcefulness… especially with lava. The only other even semi-useful information gleamed from the playful war was that Lalna was still insane and the Sipsco duo were still incompetent idiots.

Despite his loss, Ridge had enjoyed their strange match. He had always found a certain thrill in putting lives on the line, in the ease of the godly magic flowing from him. It was made much more interesting when his subjects offered any more than the usual pathetic amount of resistance. And as it turned out, the mismatched trio had been a formidable foe, even for him.

However, the time he really focused on Xephos was during Sipsco's stupendous act if idiocy. Xephos had climbing down into the Earth with a force even Ridge could not hope to control careening towards him. Discovering the spaceman balanced precariously on a rapidly dissolving ledge, Ridge had shoved the new explosives at him and explained what he could while his body shook and shimmered in and out of existence as the raging explosion pulled at the pool of magic inside him. Ridge had expected Xephos to hesitate, to flinch at the sight of the wavering image of the man before him, but he had accepted the vibrating view and the instructions echoing from it with the air of one wholly expecting the unnerving sight.

When the peace was restored, which had been a quick and efficient event once the threat had been neutralized, Ridge realized it been Xephos who took charge. The fool couldn't organize a biscuit factory, and yet he had come in and taken care of threat better than most generals.

The strangest, however, was how Xephos had changed, when that pressure and that threat had appeared. No longer was he the aloof baker or playful scientist. He had the look of a man who had been chucked into hell and dragged through its nine levels, only to climb through the inferno at the bottom and come out still standing. He wasn't seeing hell, he'd already been there.

It was strange, unnatural, how the gentle blue eyes turned cold as diamond, the soft face gone hard and wiry, the body tense not with his common unreasoned worry but with the time-hewn senses and the familiar state of battle. It unnerved Ridge to see a man he thought he knew change so suddenly and unexpectedly, and it unnerved him to know that with all his power, he had not known.

And so, when they had come together in the magical and scientific fortress that was Yoglabs, Ridge had waited for the flashes of that frightening diamond will. Waited for the glimpses of the man that mystified the god. For the man who had been to hell, and who had climbed out the other side. For the threat he knew was inside the friend.

**Note from the authors: No offense was meant towards Sips and Sjin with the idiots comment. This was written entirely in our version of the mindset of AU!RidgeDog, so take it up with him.**


End file.
